(Shasta) Lake & Lights

 

The kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving (plus upcoming Monday!) off school and, us having the holiday plus Friday off, we decided to take a 24h roadtrip to Redding to see some highly rated holiday lights (the kids were in a skate/local camp the first half of the week). I am not one of those people who complain about Christmas creeping into November (or even earlier)-- I love almost everything about Christmas, especially holiday lights (and music)! 

We had wonderful clear weather on the coast as well as inland, and stopped for some nice views over Whiskeytown Lake on the way into Redding (we definitely listened to some Christmas tunes along the way!). 

After lunch, we took a hike by Shasta Dam, with great views of snow-capped Mt. Shasta (Kelvin and Iver are looking forward to going back to ski/snowboard with their season passes!). 

Dry Creek (or Dry Fork? I saw it both ways) Trail along one of the "fingers" of Shasta lake was a lovely stroll, albeit a bit cold and windy. 

Iver, as always, did great hiking, although he did complain a bit at the start about sore (race) legs. 

Niall also held his own (I think we only did about two miles total)...

... until the end, when brother agreed to carry him.

The kids wanted to scramble down to the lakeshore and "fish." 

We had to scurry away as were out of service and we were planning to meet up with Kellie, Mark and their kids before seeing the holiday lights together.

Despite it being cold, we went for ice cream at "32 below" near our hotels. 

Play-doh flavor created quite a blue tongue for N!

The Redding Garden of Lights was a path full of lights in the garden near Turtle Bay Exploration Center and Sundial Bridge. We got the 5 p.m. opening time to beat the crowds (we heard that this sold out last year!)

The decked out trees were beautiful! 

Tall evergreens!

Cool lit igloo

The Orb Swings were really neat!

Kid panorama

The tunnel of lights was lovely!

Frameable shot (hardly ever do we have 4/4 genuinely smiling and looking at the camera!)

We had some dinner at Olive Garden (stay tuned for my rant on this later) and, the morning after, visited with some friends from Humboldt who moved to Redding in the spring.  It was a nice day+ trip to Redding, and I highly recommend a visit to the Garden of Lights if you can swing it!